Appendix - Matrix - Michigan State University

October, 1968, Olympic Games indicates vividly the
degree to which the athletic revolt has intensified.
Black protests against the anti-black policies of the
Mormon Church have escalated and expanded to include
white athletes, college coaches, and the presidents
and administrations of some of America's most
prestigious universities. Stanford University President
Kenneth Pitzer severed all relations with Mormon
controlled Brigham Young University in November of
1969 after having already granted Stanford athletes a
"Right of Conscience" earlier. Under this "Right of
Conscience" clause no Stanford athlete would be
penalized in any way for his refusal to participate in
athletic contests if such an athlete sincerely felt that to
participate would violate his basic moral and ethical
values. On November 14, 1969, President Pitzer took
a further step. In his words: "It is the policy of Stanford
University not to schedule events with institutions
which practice racial discrimination ... or which are
affiliated with or sponsored by institutions which do
so."
President Pitzer's decision followed by a few months
an identical decision by San Jose State College. Other
schools have been under tremendous pressure from
their own athletes, black and white, and from their
student bodies to follow the leads of San Jose State
and Stanford.
Also indicative of the growing animosity against
the racist policies of the Mormon Church-which
essentially stress the moral, intellectral, and physical
inferiority of blacks-were the following events.
On Saturday November 8, 1969, Coach Joe Mc­
Mullen and his football team from San Jose State
played the last football game that S.J.S. will ever play
against B.YD. "... so long as Mormon policy continues
to be racist in character." Coach McMullen
and every member of the S.J.S. football squad, including
the water boys, had voted earlier to wear black
Preface to the Paperback Edition • xiv
armbands during the game as a parting gesture of
protest. In the words of coach McMullen, "... we are
not just talking about football, or just winning or
losing; we are involved in life, in basic facts of human
dignity."
At the University of New Mexico during the 1968­
69 basketball season black students marched onto the
gym floor and gave the Black Dignity salute-dramatized
by Tommie Smith and John Carlos during the
1968 Olympic Games-while the national anthem was
being played just prior to the beginning of a D.N.M.­
B.YU. basketball contest.
During the 1969-70 basketball season the B.Y.U.
team has had to contend with the following gestures
of disapproval with racist Mormon policies.
(A) San Jose State basketball players wore black
wristbands during the playing of the last S.J.S.-B.Y.U.
basketball contest on the heels of an announcement
by S.J.S. basketball coach Dan Glines on a Los
Angeles T.V. sports program that "If I were black,
I would not even entertain the thought of playing
against B.Y.D."
(B) B.Y.U.'s Cougarettes, the porn-porn girls and
cheerleaders for the schools athletic squads, were
resoundingly booed during the Quaker City basketball
tournament in Philadelphia.
(C) The B.Y.U. basketball team was showered
with eggs during a game at Arizona State University.
(D) And at the University of Arizona, following a
strongly worded refusal on the part of the school's
president to cancel a scheduled basketball game with
B.Y.U. and to cut off all relations between the D. of A.
and the Mormon school, the U. of A. gym floor was
set afire. Despite the damage to the floor, however,
the game was played, even over the protests of about
200 students who attempted to ram down the gym's
main entrance. All the University of Arizona players
wore black wristbands. With 1 minute and 40 seconds
Preface to the Paperback Edition • xv